Hymn to the Immortal Wind

Mono's fifth studio album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind, is a gauntlet of an album: while listening to the tracks, the listener will sit up a bit straighter and lean, as if trying to get closer to the band's intoxicating rock-classical pieces. Pianos and strings vibrate along with guitars to produce an album that is as concise as it is full. Few albums today feel as considered and as thoughtful as this one. 

It makes sense: the band has been around for a decade. The instruments crash together to create an ocean of sound; true to form, the songs are like waves, sound rushing to both high and low pitches. The variation is as intoxicating as the combination of instruments like the glockenspiel and organ. If the listener closes their eyes and breaths in time with the work, it will feel as if they are sailing. 

The album is able to capture the very essence of the wind: something that is both peaceful and turbulent. Thus, to single one track out of this concise set would be misleading; this is an album meant to be devoured in whole and not through careful bites. The songs included in this album are considered compositions that interact with one another. You can't experience the swell of the waves without the rocks that they smack against. This is what the songs are like. Mono paints a scene with their music, but it's one that is based more around the building of emotion than it is a liner account of a life. Instead, this album is exactly what it's declared: praise to something that is as essential as it is immortal. 

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